At least one big sponsor has vowed to stick by NRL club Cronulla Sharks despite suspicions some of its players have used banned substances, but there are fears the club will lose sponsors if players are found to have systemically doped.

The rugby league club has become a focus of the ongoing Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation into banned drugs in sport, with allegations that up to 14 Cronulla players may be stood down.

There are concerns two types of peptide-based supplements given to the players might have contravened the World Anti-Doping Agency code.

Players met legal advisers and Cronulla management on Thursday, although the club insisted the 17 players named for Sunday’s match against Gold Coast Titans would play. NRL chief executive Dave Smith said the game would definitely go ahead.

The 2013 season began on Thursday night with a clash between South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters.

Cronulla is one of six NRL clubs being investigated. Up to 14 Sharks players reportedly have been offered six-month suspensions if they admit to doping offences that allegedly go back as far as the 2011 season, or risk a maximum two-year ban.

But a prominent sponsor said it would stand by the Sharks. Andrew Vouris, general manager of Luxbet, owned by the Australian Securities Exchange-listed
Tabcorp
, said: “We intend to wait until the facts about the current situation have been released before [conducting] any review of our sponsorship."

But Cronulla was still without a major sponsor going into the 2013 season or a naming rights sponsor for its home ground, potentially worth $2 million.

It is believed Cronulla was close to signing deals before it was named in the ASADA investigation in February, although negotiations might have finished before the drugs controversy hit the sport.

Cronulla, which had the lowest membership of all the NRL clubs in 2012, has long battled financial difficulties but last year received approval for a $300 million mixed-used property project in a joint venture with the Bluestone property consortium on and around its home ground and leagues club.

On Wednesday, bookmakers suspended betting on the Sharks match to be played on Sunday, although some agencies have since reopened markets for the game.

Cronulla is heavily favoured to win the match and, after an off-season recruiting campaign, is considered a decent chance to win its first-ever NRL premiership this year.